Americans United - martin luther kinghttps://www.au.org/tags/martin-luther-king
enDreaming Of Dr. King: Religious Right Attempts To Co-Opt Legacy Of Slain Civil Rights Leaderhttps://www.au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/dreaming-of-dr-king-religious-right-attempts-to-co-opt-legacy-of-slain
<a href="/about/people/rob-boston">Rob Boston</a><div class="field field-name-field-blog-type field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/blogs/wall-of-separation">Wall of Separation</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-callout field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Dr. Martin Luther King is being pressed into the cause of social conservatism in an attempt to fundamentally change his legacy.</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="prose"><p>As years pass, historical figures start to get a little fuzzy around the edges. This is especially true of those men and women who loom large over public consciousness. Activist groups, eager to co-opt these important historical personages, start subtly rewriting history.</p><p>Martin Luther King is an example of this. Over the years, I’ve heard King’s name invoked at the Religious Right meetings I’ve attended. King is being pressed into the cause of social conservatism in an attempt to fundamentally change his legacy. Among those leading the charge is King’s niece, Alveda, a fundamentalist Christian minister and anti-abortion activist who is a popular figure on the far-right lecture circuit.</p><p>Alveda King was 17 when her famous uncle was assassinated. She would seem an unlikely person to inherit his work, and indeed she didn’t. King’s widow, Coretta Scott King, is widely recognized as the family member who carried forth MLK’s legacy.</p><p>More to the point, was Dr. King a social conservative? Does any evidence bear this out?</p><p>Consider two issues that are near and dear to the Religious Right these days: blocking access to birth control and opposing gay rights.</p><p>On the birth control issue, <a href="http://jezebel.com/5977508/happy-mlk-day-your-friendly-reminder-martin-luther-king-loved-planned-parenthood-and-birth-control">King’s views are very clear</a>. He worked closely with Planned Parenthood to expand access to contraceptives. In fact, Planned Parenthood honored King with a special award in 1966 for his activism in favor of reproductive rights.</p><p>King was not able to attend the ceremony, but his wife read a speech he had written. King said in part, “For the Negro, therefore, intelligent guides of family planning are a profoundly important ingredient in his quest for security and a decent life. There are mountainous obstacles still separating Negroes from a normal existence. Yet one element in stabilizing his life would be an understanding of and easy access to the means to develop a family related in size to his community environment and to the income potential he can command.”</p><p>He added, “Negroes were once bred by slave owners to be sold as merchandise. They do not welcome any solution which involves population breeding as a weapon. They are instinctively sympathetic to all who offer methods that will improve their lives and offer them fair opportunity to develop and advance as all other people in our society. For these reasons we are natural allies of those who seek to inject any form of planning in our society that enriches life and guarantees the right to exist in freedom and dignity.”</p><p>King’s views on gay rights are a little <a href="http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2012/01/16/what-did-mlk-think-about-gay-people/">more opaque</a>. He apparently never addressed the issue in public. This is not unusual; in the early 1960s, very few people were openly advocating for LGBT rights.</p><p>Yet the evidence that does exist points toward tolerance. One of King’s top lieutenants, Bayard Rustin, was openly gay. King resisted calls to get rid of Rustin, and historians note that the civil-rights leader never gave an anti-gay sermon or made a public comment critical of gays. The FBI secretly recorded private telephone conservations of King’s. There is no anti-gay sentiment in these as well.</p><p>Coretta Scott King went on to become a strong champion of LGBT rights and has asserted that had her husband lived, he would have been supportive too.</p><p>(Nor did King support the Religious Right on school prayer. In a 1965 interview, he endorsed the Supreme Court rulings and noted that his nemesis, Gov. George Wallace of Alabama, stood on the other side. Observed King, “In a pluralistic society such as ours, who is to determine what prayer shall be spoken, and by whom? Legally, constitutionally or otherwise, the state certainly has no such right. I am strongly opposed to the efforts that have been made to nullify the decision. They have been motivated, I think, by little more than the wish to embarrass the Supreme Court. When I saw Brother Wallace going up to Washington to testify against the decision at the congressional hearings, it only strengthened my conviction that the decision was right.”)</p><p>But perhaps the best evidence against the “King-as-social-conservative” line is an honest appraisal of the man’s work and an examination of his character. King dedicated his life to expanding rights and opportunities for the oppressed. He challenged the privileged; he did not comfort them.</p><p>If King were alive today, I don't believe he would be standing alongside the likes of Tony Perkins, Ralph Reed, Jerry Falwell Jr., etc. Rather, I suspect he'd be opposing their religious supremacism, challenging their interpretation of the scriptures and rebuking everything they stand for.</p></div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Issues:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/issues/descriptions-and-activities-religious-right-groups">Descriptions and Activities of Religious Right Groups</a></span></div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/martin-luther-king">martin luther king</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/alveda-king">Alveda King</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/lgbt-rights">LGBT rights</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/planned-parenthood">Planned Parenthood</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/birth-control">birth control</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/george-wallace">George Wallace</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/bayard-rustin">Bayard Rustin</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/school-prayer">School Prayer</a></span></div></div>Mon, 19 Jan 2015 14:35:59 +0000Rob Boston10819 at https://www.au.orghttps://www.au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/dreaming-of-dr-king-religious-right-attempts-to-co-opt-legacy-of-slain#commentsFive Brave Christian Clergy Who Opposed Church-State Unionhttps://www.au.org/media/in-the-news/five-brave-christian-clergy-who-opposed-church-state-union
<div class="field field-name-field-news-source field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Alternet</div></div></div>Wed, 15 Feb 2012 14:05:31 +0000Rob Boston6781 at https://www.au.orghttps://www.au.org/media/in-the-news/five-brave-christian-clergy-who-opposed-church-state-union#commentsNothing To See Here: Religious Right Should Move On After Supreme Court Refuses To Hear School-Use Casehttps://www.au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/nothing-to-see-here-religious-right-should-move-on-after-supreme-court
<a href="/about/people/simon-brown">Simon Brown</a><div class="field field-name-field-blog-type field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/blogs/wall-of-separation">Wall of Separation</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-callout field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">The bottom line is that the Religious Right needs to get over this. Bronx Household of Faith used the school for 10 years rent free. It had a good run and now it’s time to move on.</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="prose"><p>Even though the Supreme Court has <a href="http://www.au.org/church-state/january-2012-church-state/people-events/supreme-court-skips-ny-battle-over-church">declined</a> to hear a case about churches using public schools for worship services, the Religious Right just can’t seem to move on.</p><p>Last year, the 2nd U.S. Court of Appeals said a congregation, Bronx Household of Faith, could no longer use a New York City public school to hold worship services. The congregation of about 50 had been using a public school, rent free, for almost 10 years.</p><p>In its <a href="http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/files/07-5291_complete_opn.pdf">ruling</a>, the appeals court said New York officials had raised reasonable objections to church use of the schools for worship, noting, “The place has, at least for a time, become the church.”</p><p>The Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), which represented Bronx Household, asked the U.S. Supreme Court to take the case. When the court declined, ADF senior counsel Jordan Lorence said in a statement: “The Supreme Court’s decision not to review this case is befuddling because it has already ruled multiple times in other equal access cases that the First Amendment protects religious worship the same as secular speech.”</p><p>And that should have been the end of it, but it wasn’t, because the Religious Right doesn’t give up easily. Now the Family Research Council (FRC) is circulating a <a href="http://www.frcaction.org/alerts/help-stop-new-yorks-attack-on-faith-and-the-first-amendment">petition</a> to Mayor Michael Bloomberg, asking him to “stop the city’s discrimination against churches.”</p><p>The FRC said: “By essentially disallowing some groups over others because, in this instance, they are religious, NY's Department of Education has engaged in nothing other than viewpoint discrimination.”</p><p>New York’s Department of Education, which announced recently that churches could no longer use public schools for worship services, is being fair. The department said that any groups (including churches!) can hold events in those schools as long as the events are open to everyone. Churches can even hold certain types of religious events, provided they are not during school hours.</p><p>This is a completely reasonable policy, which is of course why the Religious Right doesn’t like it.</p><p>The bottom line is that the Religious Right needs to get over this. Bronx Household of Faith used the school for 10 years rent free. It had a good run and now it’s time to move on.</p><p>Americans United has always been wary of these types of long-term arrangements. We’ve not objected to houses of worship using schools after hours and on weekends, but we’ve noted that the churches should be working toward getting their own space.</p><p>Churches like Bronx Household didn’t want to do that. They wanted a sweetheart deal – access to a public school rent free forever. The problem is, while they were meeting in the school every weekend, it chocked off access to every other group in the community. That’s hardly fair.</p><p>There is no “viewpoint discrimination” here because the policy doesn’t hinder one religious group more than others; it just happens that the majority of groups affected by the court decision are churches. Would the Family Research Council be petitioning Mayor Bloomberg if numerous Muslim congregations were told they could no longer have services in a public school?</p><p>Not likely.</p><p>P.S. Today is the federal observance of Martin Luther King’s birthday. Although Religious Right groups sometimes try to claim King, he was no friend of theirs. In fact, King was a supporter of church-state separation. See this previous <a href="http://www.au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/speaking-truth-to-power-martin-luther-king-on-church-and-state-0">blog post</a> for more information.</p></div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Issues:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/issues/use-school-buildings-religious-groups-during-non-school-hours">Use of School Buildings by Religious Groups</a></span></div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/family-reasearch-council">Family Reasearch Council</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/bronx-household-of-faith-v-new-york-department-of-education">Bronx Household of Faith v. New York Department of Education</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/martin-luther-king">martin luther king</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/alliance-defense-fund">Alliance Defense Fund</a></span></div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Location:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/our-work/grassroots/new-york-0">New York</a></span></div></div>Mon, 16 Jan 2012 15:06:02 +0000Simon Brown6648 at https://www.au.orghttps://www.au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/nothing-to-see-here-religious-right-should-move-on-after-supreme-court#commentsOut Of Line In Alabama: New Governor Takes On Preaching Rolehttps://www.au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/out-of-line-in-alabama-new-governor-takes-on-preaching-role
<a href="/about/people/rob-boston">Rob Boston</a><div class="field field-name-field-blog-type field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/blogs/wall-of-separation">Wall of Separation</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-callout field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Robert Bentley was elected Alabama&#039;s governor, not state preacher.</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="prose"><p><strong> </strong></p>
<p>The Web has been abuzz lately over some comments made by Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley.</p>
<p>Speaking at a Jan. 17 church service after his inauguration, Bentley <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/US/alabama-gov-robert-bentley-criticized-christian-message/story?id=12648307&amp;page=1">told a crowd</a> at Dexter Avenue King Memorial Church, “Anybody here today who has not accepted Jesus Christ as their savior, I’m telling you, you’re not my brother and you’re not my sister, and I want to be your brother.”</p>
<p>Bentley asserted that he will be “governor of all the people. I intend to live up to that. I am color blind” but then added his concern that “there may be some people here today who do not have living within them the Holy Spirit.”</p>
<p>He continued, “But if you have been adopted in God’s family like I have and like you have, if you’re a Christian and if you’re saved, and the Holy Spirit lives within you just like the Holy Spirit lives within me, then... it makes you and me brother and sister. If we don’t have the same daddy, we’re not brothers and sisters.” <em> </em></p>
<p>Some people have called or e-mailed to ask Americans United what we think about this. It shouldn’t surprise anyone to learn that we consider rhetoric like this to be quite inappropriate.</p>
<p>Bentley was elected governor, not state preacher. Furthermore, he is the governor of all the people of Alabama. Perhaps he doesn’t need to look at everyone in the state as metaphorical brothers and sisters, but he does need to respect their beliefs because it’s his job to represent them all.</p>
<p>The controversial remarks were uttered while Bentley was at the church in his official role as governor speaking at a special service to honor Dr. Martin Luther King. That’s ironic when you consider that King forged a movement made up of people of many different religious faiths (and none) to expand freedom. King considered all of these people – no matter what they believed or did not believe about God – his brothers and sisters. Bentley’s comments in no way honored the man.</p>
<p>Bentley, a Southern Baptist deacon, has <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110119/ap_on_re_us/us_alabama_governor_christians;_ylt=ArZ02mUU596FiUEBycOLokSs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTFpdmpndHVkBHBvcwMzNgRzZWMDYWNjb3JkaW9uX21vc3RfcG9wdWxhcgRzbGsDYWxhZ292ZXJub3Jh">since apologized</a>. He said that at the time he believed his remarks were appropriate since he was speaking to audience of evangelical Christians.</p>
<p>But Bentley should have realized that at a public event like this, the audience would be mixed. And in the unlikely event that everyone was an evangelical, then why did Bentley need to go on a proselytism tear at all? Wouldn’t those folks already be his “brothers and sisters” since they believe in Jesus?</p>
<p>I’d call Bentley’s remarks what they were: a call to conversion coming from an elected official. He backed off when there was a backlash and offered a classic half-apology, saying “If anyone from other religions felt disenfranchised by the language, I want to say I am sorry.” (Translation: If you’re feeling offended, it’s really sort of your fault for being so sensitive.)</p>
<p>We expect altar calls Christian ministers. It’s jarring to hear one coming from an elected government official. Jews, Buddhists, Muslims, Hindus and non-believers were alarmed, and rightly so.</p>
<p>Bentley has met with leaders of the Jewish community in Alabama, and some non-Christians say they have accepted his apology and are ready to move on. Fair enough. But the governor is off to a rocky start. I’d like to know what sort of public policy he’ll propose. Clearly, the situation bears watching.</p>
<p>P.S. Alabama may be the buckle of the Bible Belt, but we know there are plenty of people there who support the separation of church and state. Americans United has chapters in Mobile and Tuscaloosa. If you live in the state and want to get involved, opportunities are there.</p>
</div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/alabama">Alabama</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/election-10">Election &#039;10</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/martin-luther-king">martin luther king</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/robert-bentley">Robert Bentley</a></span></div></div>Thu, 20 Jan 2011 17:23:13 +0000Rob Boston2156 at https://www.au.orghttps://www.au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/out-of-line-in-alabama-new-governor-takes-on-preaching-role#commentsReligious Freedom For All: Another Dream Of Dr. Martin Luther Kinghttps://www.au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/religious-freedom-for-all-another-dream-of-dr-martin-luther-king
<a href="/about/people/rob-boston">Rob Boston</a><div class="field field-name-field-blog-type field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/blogs/wall-of-separation">Wall of Separation</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-callout field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Martin Luther King did not support the Religious Right&#039;s social goals. </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="prose"><p><em>Note: Today is the federal observance of Dr. Martin Luther King's birthday. This blog post is a re-publication on an item that originally appeared on Jan. 13, 2006.</em></p>
<p>Today marks the federal observance of Dr. Martin Luther King's birthday. Since his tragic assassination on April 4, 1968, King's memory has been pressed into service in highly unusual ways that King himself would not have supported.</p>
<p>As the nation pauses to remember civil rights leader this year, it's a good time to take a look at what this great American leader really thought about church-state issues.</p>
<p>First off, King was no advocate of partisan politicking in the pulpit. While the Baptist preacher spoke powerfully about issues of racial justice and equality, he did not see the need to hand out candidate endorsements in church. U.S. Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), who worked with King in the '60s, has pointed out several times that King did not electioneer in church. Yet, even today some Religious Right activists claim that because federal law bans houses of worship (and other nonprofits) from endorsing candidates, King would not have been able to do the work he did. This is simply untrue.</p>
<p>King also did not support the Religious Right's social goals. He was an advocate of family planning, for example, and once compared the struggle for civil rights to the battle to legalize artificial forms of birth control.</p>
<p>King supported the Supreme Court's decisions striking down government-sponsored prayer in public schools. In a January 1965 interview with <em>Playboy</em> magazine, King was asked about one of those rulings. He not only backed what the court did, he noted that his frequent nemesis, Gov. George Wallace of Alabama, stood on the other side.</p>
<p>"I endorse it. I think it was correct," King said. "Contrary to what many have said, it sought to outlaw neither prayer nor belief in God. In a pluralistic society such as ours, who is to determine what prayer shall be spoken, and by whom? Legally, constitutionally or otherwise, the state certainly has no such right. I am strongly opposed to the efforts that have been made to nullify the decision. They have been motivated, I think, by little more than the wish to embarrass the Supreme Court. When I saw Brother Wallace going up to Washington to testify against the decision at the congressional hearings, it only strengthened my conviction that the decision was right."</p>
<p>Were he alive today, it's unlikely King would endorse the Religious Right's current crusades for teaching creationism and "intelligent design" in public schools. King saw no need for religion and science to fight. "Science keeps religion from sinking into the valley of crippling irrationalism and paralyzing obscurantism," he once wrote.</p>
<p>In one of his most famous passages, King reminded Americans of the different roles religion and government play in society.</p>
<p>"The church must be reminded that it is not the master or the servant of the state, but rather the conscience of the state," King wrote in <em>Strength to Love</em>, a sermon collection. "It must be the guide and the critic of the state, and never its tool. If the church does not recapture its prophetic zeal, it will become an irrelevant social club without moral or spiritual authority."</p>
<p>King was no friend to the Religious Right. Take a moment today and celebrate his true legacy of freedom.</p>
</div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Issues:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/issues/fighting-religious-right">Fighting the Religious Right</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/issues/history-and-origins-church-state-separation">History and Origins of Church-State Separation</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/issues/religion-public-schools-and-universities">Religion in Public Schools and Universities</a></span></div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/birth-control">birth control</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/george-wallace">George Wallace</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/martin-luther-king">martin luther king</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/prayer-public-schools">prayer in public schools</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/religion-and-politics">Religion and politics</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/religious-right-0">Religious Right</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/us-supreme-court">The U.S. Supreme Court</a></span></div></div>Mon, 18 Jan 2010 14:46:39 +0000Rob Boston2057 at https://www.au.orghttps://www.au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/religious-freedom-for-all-another-dream-of-dr-martin-luther-king#commentsUncivil Disobedience: Why Religious Right Attempts To Invoke Martin Luther King Failhttps://www.au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/uncivil-disobedience-why-religious-right-attempts-to-invoke-martin-luther
<a href="/about/people/rob-boston">Rob Boston</a><div class="field field-name-field-blog-type field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/blogs/wall-of-separation">Wall of Separation</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-callout field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Not all forms of civil disobedience are equal.</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="prose"><p>Religious Right leaders love to invoke Dr. Martin Luther King. Dr. King engaged in civil disobedience to oppose Jim Crow laws in the South, they argue, and so can we to fight abortion or same-sex marriage.</p>
<p>The argument reared its head again when a coalition of Roman Catholic, evangelical Protestant and Orthodox officials released the "Manhattan Declaration" Nov. 20. The <a href="http://www.au.org/media/press-releases/archives/2009/11/religious-right-catholic.html">document blasts</a> same-sex marriage, legal abortion, stem-cell research and other right-wing targets. The document implies that since these religious traditions claim a lock on theological truth, the law should bend to their will.</p>
<p>Signers of the Declaration also endorsed civil disobedience and invoked King in their defense.</p>
<p>"Through the centuries, Christianity has taught that civil disobedience is not only permitted, but sometimes required," observes <a href="http://www.manhattandeclaration.org">the Declaration</a>. "There is no more eloquent defense of the rights and duties of religious conscience than the one offered by Martin Luther King, Jr., in his Letter from a Birmingham Jail."</p>
<p>Declaration signers then vow to "not comply with any edict that purports to compel our institutions to participate in abortions, embryo-destructive research, assisted suicide and euthanasia, or any other anti-life act; nor will we bend to any rule purporting to force us to bless immoral sexual partnerships, treat them as marriages or the equivalent, or refrain from proclaiming the truth, as we know it, about morality and immorality and marriage and the family."</p>
<p>The Declaration's backers overlook one key fact: Not all forms of civil disobedience are equal. King built a multi-racial, interfaith movement that sought to end the injustice of government-sponsored racism, with civil disobedience as one of its tools. He sought to advance rights, not retard them.</p>
<p>Compare that to the backers of the Manhattan Declaration and their goals. They are drawn from a handful of ultra-conservative faith traditions, and their aim is to enshrine their narrow version of Christianity in the law for all to follow. Under their theocratic vision, rights would contract, not expand.</p>
<p>In the Jim Crow South, African Americans were denied fundamental rights. They could not hold certain jobs. They were denied the right to vote. They could not get service in certain restaurants or even enter some places of business. They were treated as second-class citizens.</p>
<p>King's program of civil disobedience challenged that evil system and helped overturn it. As a results, rights were extended to a population that had been denied them.</p>
<p>The only "rights" the Manhattan Declaration seeks to protect are bogus ones – the so-called "right" of a pharmacist to stand between a patient and his or her doctor by refusing to provide prescribed medications and the "right" of religious employers (even in secular businesses) to hire and fire on the basis of what people believe or don't believe about God.</p>
<p>This is bigotry, plain and simple. It is about as far removed from what King sought as you can get.</p>
<p>The <em>Los Angeles Times</em> made this point well in a recent <a href="http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editorials/la-ed-disobedience28-2009nov28,0,1407498.story">editorial</a>. Labeling the Declaration's words "irresponsible and dangerous," The <em>Times </em>points out that civil disobedience is a last resort and notes that conservative religious leaders have many other avenues open to them.</p>
<p>"The impression left is that the legal environment in which churches must operate is reminiscent of the Roman Empire that threw Christians to the lions," asserts the editorial. "Never mind that advocates of same-sex civil marriage and legal abortion have made significant concessions to believers or that religious groups have recourse to courts, which have aggressively protected the free exercise of religion guaranteed by the 1st Amendment."</p>
<p>The <em>Times</em> is exactly right. The right's nod toward civil disobedience makes for good media copy, but the threat is hollow. No one is trying to force the Catholic Church (or any other religious institution) to perform same-sex marriages or provide abortion.</p>
<p>What people do expect is that professionals will do their jobs. A pharmacist's job is to fill doctor-written prescriptions, not impose religion. Pharmacists who do not want to fill prescriptions should find another line of work.</p>
<p>The Manhattan Declaration attempts to cloak its theocratic impulses in the noble words and actions of King. The effort will fail. When all is said and done, the Declaration's backers have nothing to offer but a government that enforces the religious views of some people over others. That's not freedom – it's tyranny.</p>
<p>The Declaration's supporters have a vision, but it is not Dr. King's. Theirs comes from a different time. I'd say the 12th Century is about right.</p>
</div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Issues:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/issues/fighting-religious-right">Fighting the Religious Right</a></span></div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/civil-disobedience">civil disobedience</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/martin-luther-king">martin luther king</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/manhattan-declaration-0">The Manhattan Declaration</a></span></div></div>Tue, 01 Dec 2009 19:16:51 +0000Rob Boston2044 at https://www.au.orghttps://www.au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/uncivil-disobedience-why-religious-right-attempts-to-invoke-martin-luther#commentsPulpits And Politics: An Overlooked Lesson From Dr. Kinghttps://www.au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/pulpits-and-politics-an-overlooked-lesson-from-dr-king
<a href="/about/people/rob-boston">Rob Boston</a><div class="field field-name-field-blog-type field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/blogs/wall-of-separation">Wall of Separation</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-callout field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Martin Luther King was too smart to ever allow his movement to become little more than a device for handing out lists of endorsements on election day.</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="prose"><p>Today is the federal observance of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday. As such, it's a good time to respond to offensive Religious Right's efforts to draft King as an ally in their crusade to promote pulpit-based partisan politicking on behalf of candidates seeking public office.</p>
<p>King certainly organized people to vote in churches and used the pulpit to denounce the South's practice of segregation. Nothing in the tax code prevented that. But King did not take the step the Religious Right prods pastors to take – endorsing or opposing candidates from the pulpit.</p>
<p>U.S. Rep. John Lewis, who worked alongside King for many years, has stated repeatedly that King did not endorse candidates from the pulpit. Lewis opposes efforts to repeal the IRS language forbidding such partisan political intervention. He once said, "We need to maintain this strong, solid wall, this separation of church and state. I knew Martin Luther King; he was a friend of mine. He never, to my knowledge, endorsed a political candidate."</p>
<p>Religious Right activists sometimes argue that under current tax laws, King could not have told people to vote against Bull Connor, the thuggish public safety commissioner who was notorious for unleashing attack dogs and water cannons on civil rights activists.</p>
<p>But King didn't have to tell people how to vote. The people who worked with him were only too well aware of Connor's record. Everyone involved the civil rights struggle knew about Connor's tactics. King did not have to tell them that Connor was a bad man. The problem, in fact, was not deciding whom to vote for but getting access to the ballot in the first place.</p>
<p>Americans United Executive Director Barry W. Lynn explained it well in <a href="http://pietyandpolitics.com/">his book</a> <em>Piety &amp; Politics: The Right-Wing Assault on Religious Freedom</em>. "King stood up to Connor's brutality and, through non-violent means, exposed its ugly face to the world," wrote Lynn. "That tactic was far more effective than a pulpit-based partisan campaign against Connor, which merely would have expended energy saying things anyone who was paying even the slightest bit of attention already knew or, sadly, had experienced firsthand."</p>
<p>By remaining focused on the injustice of Jim Crow, the civil rights movement was able to achieve its goals. It united people of many different religions, races and backgrounds to pursue a common goal. It thrust the ugliness of segregation into the face of the American people and challenged them to respond. They did.</p>
<p>Things might have turned out quite differently had the leaders of the movement simply hitched themselves to a candidate and mobilized their churches to elect him. Once elected, after all, a candidate is quite capable of not delivering on promises made.</p>
<p>King was too smart to ever allow his movement to become little more than a device for handing out lists of endorsements on election day. Pastors today should follow his example: Feel free to speak out on the issues that concern you. Rely on moral persuasion and sound arguments to achieve your goals. Keep partisan politicking and advice on whom to vote for or against out of the pulpit.</p>
<p>By the way, it's also worth remembering that King was a strong supporter of church-state separation. He backed the Supreme Court's school prayer rulings and blasted Alabama Gov. George Wallace for engaging in demagoguery over the issue.</p>
<p>In one notable sermon, King observed, "The church must be reminded that it is not the master or the servant of the state, but rather the conscience of the state. It must be the guide and the critic of the state, and never its tool. If the church does not recapture its prophetic zeal, it will become an irrelevant social club without moral or spiritual authority."</p>
<p>I say amen to that.</p>
</div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Issues:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/issues/churches-and-politics">Churches and Politics</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/issues/fighting-religious-right">Fighting the Religious Right</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/issues/history-and-origins-church-state-separation">History and Origins of Church-State Separation</a></span></div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/martin-luther-king">martin luther king</a></span></div></div>Mon, 21 Jan 2008 15:02:53 +0000Rob Boston1843 at https://www.au.orghttps://www.au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/pulpits-and-politics-an-overlooked-lesson-from-dr-king#comments